Today's East Village: Coldplay Bassist Sells to 20-Something Designer

“Prewar” and “loft” are not the sorts of real estate monikers that often attach themselves to East Village housing stock, larded as the neighborhood is with grotty tenements and grottier college students. But, if such a gem exists, count on a sentimentally soulful guy like Guy Berryman to find it. The Glaswegian bassist for would-be art rockers Coldplay has just let go of his three-bedroom, exposed-beams-and-brick beauty after nearly two years at 79 East 2nd Street.

The buyer is Kaelen Farncombe, a Toronto-born, Parsons-graduated designer whose designs Women’s Wear Dailyhas likened to “choose-your-own-adventure books.” What sort of adventures might she plan for her new pad, which city records reveal she paid $4.15 million for?

Perhaps a dinner party, as Stribling‘s Cathy Taub enthuses about the condo’s layout in her listing: “Exceptionally beautiful wide plank imported floors are laid throughout the apartment. There is a chef’s kitchen with a six-burner professional Wolf range with dual oven, a beautiful white farmhouse kitchen sink with apron front, Sub-Zero fridge and lustrous veined white marble countertops.”

And there is lots to love for a fashionable lady like Ms. Farncombe. “All the design choices accentuate quality and craft and all of the details are simply too numerous to mention-this is an example of a property that needs to be seen and experienced to be fully appreciated,” Ms. Taub writes. Just like a Kaelen-brand outfit!

As for Mr. Berryman, with a new album on the way, he will probably be touring too much to use the home. It has proven a worthwhile investment all the same, as he bought it for only $2.65 million in July 2009, though it also sold for less than the $4.5 million he first put it on the market for in December.